Political commentary from the LA Times

As the holiday season arrives, our thoughts on The Ticket turn to
working not quite so hard for a few days. So we are re-publishing some
of our favorite or most-read items from 2009. This item originally appeared on Nov. 10.

Carrie Prejean, some might remember, is the California beauty queen who gained instant ignominy in some circles by agreeing with President Obama's ridiculous notion that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

This was said to make Prejean outrageously conservative although
Obama, who is a male and said the same thing throughout the endless
presidential campaign, was ranked as the most liberal member of the
U.S. Senate a year ago now. That must be what passes for progress
nowadays.

Both liberals and conservatives have been bickering and chuckling
and pointing fingers of hypocrisy ever since. Also, Prejean had breast
augmentation, some keen-eyed critics noted, which is certainly
unimaginable for any American female let alone ones successfully
participating in the beauty business.

Anyway, Prejean lost her Miss California USA sash when she allegedly failed to fulfill ....

... appearance provisions of her contract because she was too busy
becoming a conservative icon. Like pretty much every other breathing
soul in public life this month, she's written a book.

It's titled "Still Standing," which some folks might see as having a
double-meaning in the context of a sex video, but not us. Sean Hannity,
who also has a dangerously conservative reputation, wrote the book's
foreword and had the 22-year-old author on his Fox News Channel program
last night.

As he so succinctly put it, "We might as well go right to it."

The handsome host noted that the high-powered celebrity website TMZ
claimed to have a sex video of the beautiful Prejean that is so
outrageously explicit it hasn't posted it yet. But people can feel free
to keep clicking back there every few minutes to check. If they don't
mind someday maybe finding a naked female conservative with bipartisan
augmentations.

Prejean replied -- insert teasing pause here -- yes,
there was a tape she had done as a teenager. She made it for a distant
boyfriend whom she loved at the time. She said TMZ can call it a "sex
tape" if it wants. But she was alone on the video, and no one else was
in the room.

So everyone (except TMZ, Prejean's mother and the ex-boyfriend, who
presumably provided the tape of his once-beloved) is left to imagine
what songs Prejean chose to sing on her karaoke machine that night.

Prejean said it was the "biggest mistake" she'd ever made in her
not-yet-lengthy life. She regretted it. She felt mortified talking
about it, but it was her own fault. And that as a Christian she'd never
claimed to be perfect.

Prejean and Hannity agreed that conservative women seem to be
targeted for criticism by liberal media. (All of whose members are,
btw, never naked.)

Prejean also said that she and her very liberal sister ... well, you can watch this short Fox News video for yourself. (Warning: This
video contains graphic images of two fully-clothed adults talking about
a book on a cable news channel decidedly denounced by senior Obama
White House aides.) Read more below.

Additionally, we should note that, as reported here last week by The Ticket, someone named David Plouffe
was also on Fox News last night, also selling a book. Plouffe, some
might remember, was the manager of the Obama presidential campaign that
hasn't really ended yet. Or has already started again.

The fully-clothed Plouffe was talking with Greta Van Susteren about how really, totally, amazingly, seriously Obama considered Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential partner before going instead with the charismatic Joe Biden. No mention of any videotapes.